EON Smart Meter - Not working + Extremely poor customer service, - AVOID!

LeukyBear

Hello, 

I would like share my extremely frustrating and disappointing service experience i have received from EON.  i was with my previous supplier for a few years, however saw an EON ad and checked them out and it showed they could save me bit more money from my current usage. I was bit hesitant because i had really good service with my current supplier and was wary that cheaper isn't necessarily better.  However, they reviews seemed okay and they stated you get a smart meter installed when you come on supply where you would not need to send monthly readings, i was like hmm okay, lets have a try.  I could honestly, say i regretted this so much now and i will tell you the nightmare i have had since this, and still on-going. 

The switch went smoothly, or near enough, few teething problems namely getting the gas over but hey, we got there in the end. They installed the smart meter fairly quickly too. Sadly, it stopped working 2 days later, not only did the IHD stopped working but the meter isn't and hasn't been sending any meter readings to eon/my account. I spoke to numerous customer agents who all been telling me different things and passing me on to other staff, going in in round about for weeks. These are some of the things they have said out of many;

- Don't worry it's newly installed, that's normal for stability issues, it will resolve in a few days. - LIES it's been 7 weeks since.
- Don't worry about IHD, we could still get readings from your meter anytime we want, the IHD will miraculously start working - Lies, they can't even speak to my meter. 
-We can speak to your meter, opps, sorry we can't actually communicate with it, i will get a someone to look at it and call you back - No one never called back.
- Yeah we can't speak to you meters, but don't worry we will send an update to it which will make it work and your IHD - How can you send an update to it, if you can't speak to it?
- We will get you a replacement smart meter because it's faulty, we will call you tomorrow as the department is closed right now - Lied again, No phone call, phone and got told they won't ever replace them, as it would certainly have the same problem as i have the latest built. 
- we are really sorry, but you will have to just keep the meter and send us manual readings, it may work one day where you don't have to do that again. - Really, work one day?

i demanded my old meters back, and got told that it will cost me £472  to have the old manual ones put back as they will not replace the faulty smart meter even though they can't communicate with it, they will be able to update it. So either i pay £472 to have them put the old meters back, or keep the faulty ones and send manual meter readings monthly. 

This is extremely disappointed and that was the final decision that was reared after speaking with over 11 different people telling me different things, passing me on to other ppl, ill advising and telling lies, and false promises of phone calls etc.

So now i have a dummy smart meter smets 2 with a IHD doesn't work either where i now have to do it job for it, by submitting manual readings. or else pay £472 pounds to reinstall my old manual meters to send manual meters anyway.  Bearing in mind, they removed to install their fault ones for free, and took my old ones away which were in pretty good order. 

I'm unconvinced that if you can't even communicate with my dumb smart meter, how could you send an update to something you don't even have a connection with? 
why should i pay to £472 to have my old meters back? 
why can't you replace this faulty smart meter you installed that only worked for 2 days, with a new one? 

My first bill is due in a few days, and the meter readings are the meter readings the engineer sent when he installed it, and it's pretty much reading 99999 for gas and 00001 for electricity. 

This has been so frustrating, and draining, i 100% regret switching as this has been such a nightmare....and they don't care basically..basically you have a smart meter, we don't care if it works or not, that's your problem now! (we have fulfilling the government scheme of installing smart meters)

Out of principle, i do not want to send meter readings when it should be doing it for me...also out of principle i inclined to pay to have my old meter put back and paying early termination fees and going back to my old company out of principle. The last thing i want is to be stuck with a smart meter that never works and this goes on for the entire length of the contract. This will bite later as lots of companies don't want to touch dummy smart meters of the smets 1. 

Advice? 

Update: I decided to roll over, and just submit meter readings from my newly installed now dumb smart Smets 2 smart meter installed by Eon. I would advise anyone to AVOID at all cost. Totally not worth it, once you are on board, they don't don't care from there on...

matelodave

You are just another of the hundreds of the disillusioned on this forum who haven't had a good experience of smart metering. 

Having a rant might make you feel better but TBH, as there's nowt you can do about it, it's not worth getting upset or losing sleep over. The rest of us don't really care anymore

Biscuit_Tin

LeukyBear said:

Hello, 

I would like share my extremely frustrating and disappointing service experience i have received from EON.  i was with my previous supplier for a few years, however saw an EON ad and checked them out and it showed they could save me bit more money from my current usage. I was bit hesitant because i had really good service with my current supplier and was wary that cheaper isn't necessarily better.  However, they reviews seemed okay and they stated you get a smart meter installed when you come on supply where you would not need to send monthly readings, i was like hmm okay, lets have a try.  I could honestly, say i regretted this so much now and i will tell you the nightmare i have had since this, and still on-going. 

The switch went smoothly, or near enough, few teething problems namely getting the gas over but hey, we got there in the end. They installed the smart meter fairly quickly too. Sadly, it stopped working 2 days later, not only did the IHD stopped working but the meter isn't and hasn't been sending any meter readings to eon/my account. I spoke to numerous customer agents who all been telling me different things and passing me on to other staff, going in in round about for weeks. These are some of the things they have said out of many;

- Don't worry it's newly installed, that's normal for stability issues, it will resolve in a few days. - LIES it's been 7 weeks since.
- Don't worry about IHD, we could still get readings from your meter anytime we want, the IHD will miraculously start working - Lies, they can't even speak to my meter. 
-We can speak to your meter, opps, sorry we can't actually communicate with it, i will get a someone to look at it and call you back - No one never called back.
- Yeah we can't speak to you meters, but don't worry we will send an update to it which will make it work and your IHD - How can you send an update to it, if you can't speak to it?
- We will get you a replacement smart meter because it's faulty, we will call you tomorrow as the department is closed right now - Lied again, No phone call, phone and got told they won't ever replace them, as it would certainly have the same problem as i have the latest built. 
- we are really sorry, but you will have to just keep the meter and send us manual readings, it may work one day where you don't have to do that again. - Really, work one day?

i demanded my old meters back, and got told that it will cost me £472  to have the old manual ones put back as they will not replace the faulty smart meter even though they can't communicate with it, they will be able to update it. So either i pay £472 to have them put the old meters back, or keep the faulty ones and send manual meter readings monthly. 

This is extremely disappointed and that was the final decision that was reared after speaking with over 11 different people telling me different things, passing me on to other ppl, ill advising and telling lies, and false promises of phone calls etc.

So now i have a dummy smart meter smets 2 with a IHD doesn't work either where i now have to do it job for it, by submitting manual readings. or else pay £472 pounds to reinstall my old manual meters to send manual meters anyway.  Bearing in mind, they removed to install their fault ones for free, and took my old ones away which were in pretty good order. 

I'm unconvinced that if you can't even communicate with my dumb smart meter, how could you send an update to something you don't even have a connection with? 
why should i pay to £472 to have my old meters back? 
why can't you replace this faulty smart meter you installed that only worked for 2 days, with a new one? 

My first bill is due in a few days, and the meter readings are the meter readings the engineer sent when he installed it, and it's pretty much reading 99999 for gas and 00001 for electricity. 

This has been so frustrating, and draining, i 100% regret switching as this has been such a nightmare....and they don't care basically..basically you have a smart meter, we don't care if it works or not, that's your problem now! (we have fulfilling the government scheme of installing smart meters)

Out of principle, i do not want to send meter readings when it should be doing it for me...also out of principle i inclined to pay to have my old meter put back and paying early termination fees and going back to my old company out of principle. The last thing i want is to be stuck with a smart meter that never works and this goes on for the entire length of the contract. This will bite later as lots of companies don't want to touch dummy smart meters of the smets 1. 

Advice? 

I can't really provide you any more advice that that already offered to you in spades in the other thread you have posted in about this in:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/77395488

LeukyBear

matelodave said:

You are just another of the hundreds of the disillusioned on this forum who haven't had a good experience of smart metering. 

Having a rant might make you feel better but TBH, as there's nowt you can do about it, it's not worth getting upset or losing sleep over. The rest of us don't really care anymore

That's fine, we all learn lessons...hopefully, someone reads and not make the same mistake again.

And also, for people to not just roll over while eon !!!!!! all over you too. 

victor2

Send a complaint in writing (email will do) clearly headed COMPLAINT, so that you have a record. Follow the complaints procedure on their website and state what you want done to rectify the situation. It may not get you very far, but will save you the frustrating phone calls. You have dumb meters now anyway, so can switch to another supplier if you wish without paying to get your old meters back.

I wouldn't have thought you'd get your actual old meters back, just some refurbished non-smart ones, so why bother if you can manually read your meters now?

matelodave

As I'll probably never be an Eon customer it's unlikely that they'll !!!!!! over me 

stewie_griffin

To clarify are you saying that when you've just read the meters now that the readings haven't moved since the meters were installed? If so have you explained this to e.on as I'm sure they'd come out and replace them in this scenario.

LeukyBear

victor2 said:

Send a complaint in writing (email will do) clearly headed COMPLAINT, so that you have a record. Follow the complaints procedure on their website and state what you want done to rectify the situation. It may not get you very far, but will save you the frustrating phone calls. You have dumb meters now anyway, so can switch to another supplier if you wish without paying to get your old meters back.

I wouldn't have thought you'd get your actual old meters back, just some refurbished non-smart ones, so why bother if you can manually read your meters now?

Thanks, and yeah i probably could do but it's about the principle...it's like buying a sports car but really, they gave you a push bike...it still could get you places but not what you bargained for. 

Gerry1

LeukyBear said:

Thanks, and yeah i probably could do but it's about the principle...it's like buying a sports car but really, they gave you a push bike...it still could get you places but not what you bargained for. 

No.  It's like hiring the smallest car, one that only promises a radio.  However, on the day it's not available so they they give you a free upgrade to a better car.  Unfortunately, you're the first hirer and they can't find the anti-theft code to unlock the built-in satnav.

It's not worth making a big fuss because you're not out of pocket and the replacement car does everything that the smaller car would have done.

MWT

stewie_griffin said:

To clarify are you saying that when you've just read the meters now that the readings haven't moved since the meters were installed? If so have you explained this to e.on as I'm sure they'd come out and replace them in this scenario.

Since the OP is refusing to read the meter unless he gets his old ones back (see other thread), we may never know...

LeukyBear

Gerry1 said:

LeukyBear said:

Thanks, and yeah i probably could do but it's about the principle...it's like buying a sports car but really, they gave you a push bike...it still could get you places but not what you bargained for. 

No.  It's like hiring the smallest car, one that only promises a radio.  However, on the day it's not available so they they give you a free upgrade to a better car.  Unfortunately, you're the first hirer and they can't find the anti-theft code to unlock the built-in satnav.

It's not worth making a big fuss because you're not out of pocket and the replacement car does everything that the smaller car would have done.

That's a really god way of putting it. 

Should i just roll over, submit readings monthly, and stay with a dummy smart meter smets 2? cause that's clearly what it is...they have already washed their hands on me already...meter doesn't work, we don't care! (it may work one day but we don't know)